Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

The Kaisers cruisers : 1871-1918 /Aidan Dodson and Dirk Nottelmann. "While bookshelves groan with works on the capital ships of the German Third Reich, there is little in English devoted to their predecessors of the Second Reich, so this new book will fill a clear gap in its study of German cruisers of the period, from wooden-hulled corvettes, through the fusion of 'overseas' and 'home' vessels into the modern small cruisers that evolved and fought in the First World War. The book covers the full range of cruising vessels operated or ordered by the Imperial German Navy between 1871 and 1918, excluding the large cruisers, previously covered by the author's companion volume The Kaiser's Battlefleet. These include corvettes, avisos, sloops, torpedo cruisers, III- and IV-class cruisers and small cruisers, and are described and arranged in a chronological narrative. This includes both design and operational histories, the latter continuing down to the end of ships' service after the fall of Imperial Germany, and it is accompanied by an extensive selection of many rare photographs. The ships' technical details are tabulated in the second half of the book which also includes sketches of ships' internal layouts and armour and changes in appearance over time. The authors have made extensive use of archival material, particularly relating to the political and technical background to design and procurement, and present a developmental history of this ship class which is unique in the English language. It will have huge appeal to all those with an interest in the German navy and to those who have been waiting avidly for the sequel to The Kaiser's Battlefleet."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.8253

Master and madman : the surprising rise and disastrous fall of the Hon Anthony Lockwood RN /by Peter Thomas & Nicholas Tracy. "Anthony Lockwood s story is at the heart of the Georgian Navy though the man himself has never taken centre stage in its history. His naval career described by himself as twenty five years incessant peregrination followed a somewhat erratic course but almost exactly spanned the period of the French wars and the War of 1812. Lockwood was commended for bravery in action against the French; was present at the Spithead Mutiny; shipwrecked and imprisoned in France; appointed master attendant of the naval yard at Bridgetown, Barbados, during the year the slave trade was abolished; and served as an hydrographer before beginning his three-year marine survey of Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy. Against the odds he managed to finesse a treasury appointment as Surveyor General of New Brunswick and became the right hand man of the Governor, General Smyth. Deeply ingrained in his character, however, was a democratic determination that was out of step with the authoritarian character of the Navy and the aristocratic one of New Brunswick. His expectation of social justice verged on madness, and when he finally succumbed to lunacy it was in the defence of democracy. The turbulence of the times inspired Lockwood to stage a one-man coup d etat which ended with him being jailed and shipped back to London to live out his days as a pensioner and mental patient. Truly a dramatic rise and a tragic fall." 2012. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92LOCKWOOD

The hunters and the hunted / by Bryan Perrett. "At the start of World War One the Imperial German Navy had a large number of surface warships deployed around the world. These posed a considerable threat to British mercantile interests, particularly the import of food and fuel supplies. Their elimination was a matter of urgency.This book covers the major actions and includes the following:The escape of the Goeben and Breslau to Turkey, where they became units of the Turkish Navy serving in the Black and Aegean Seas.The remarkable cruise of the Emden. Detached from the German East Asia Squadron she sank a Russian cruiser, a French destroyer, 21 merchant ships and destroyed cargo valued at GBP3 million. She was cornered and sunk by the Australian cruiser Sydney while raiding the Cocos Islands. The mystery of the Karlsruhe, destroyed by an internal explosion.The German East Asiatic Squadron, consisting of the armoured cruisers Schanhorst and Gneisienau and several light cruisers made passage across the Pacific to the west coast of South America where they encountered and sank two British cruisers, the Monmouth and Good Hope.The Konigsberg operated from Germany's colony of Tanga. After sinking a British cruiser she hid in the upper reaches of the Rufiji River. After a lengthy naval and air campaign by British forces she was finally destroyed by the indirect fire from two RN Monitors.By the middle of 1915 the high seas had been mostly cleared of German surface warships, but two armed German ships dominated Lake Tanganyika. Two British armed motor boats were shipped to the West African coast from England and made their way by river and overland haulage to the lake, a 400 mile journey. The result was the destruction of the German lake boats and the invasion of Tanganyika by British forces. This operation became the inspiration for CS Forester's novel The African Queen and the film that followed."--Dust jacket. 2012. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.82(43)"1914/1915"

Arctic convoys 1941-1945 / Woodman, Richard. 1994 "For the last four gruelling years of the war, the Western Allies supplied arms and ammunition to Soviet Russia. These supplies were essential to the Russian war effort, and so the Germans were determined to cut them off. Allied merchant ships ran the gauntlet of the icy Barents Sea, outflanked by German bases in Norway, from where bombers, surface warships and U-boats could attack without warning. Each delivery of arms was an epic achievement. In fact an eminent British historian described it as 'undertaking the impossible'. Under pressure from both Stalin and Roosevelt, Churchill compelled the British navy to fight convoy after convoy through to Murmansk and Archangel. This was war áa outrance, where the sinking of a single 10,000-ton freighter was the equivalent, in terms of material destroyed, of a land battle. It was the Arctic that saw the last concentration of the U-boats, driven from their former French bases; the Arctic that saw the last Royal Navy ship sunk in European waters, and the Arctic that saw the greatest defeat of a convoy in modern history. [...] The debacle of PQ17, the surface actions, the U-boat attacks and running air battles culminating in the final destruction of the Scharnhorst, are all fully covered, but so too are the personal angle and the perspective of the long-suffering merchant ships and their crews, together with the political implications, whose rumblings linger yet. At last the part played by the merchant crews in this theatre of war is fully explored. The author, himself a professional seaman, has carried out a major and comprehensive review of naval operations in the Arctic which, ironically for Britain and the United States, left Stalin's Russia the dominating power in post-war Europe."--Provided by the publisher. 1994 • BOOK • 2 copies available. 940.542.1(47)

Flags at sea : a guide to the flags flown at sea by British and some foreign ships, from the 16th century to the present day /Timothy Wilson. Wilson, Timothy, 1999. • BOOK • 3 copies available. 929.9.024/.025

The Kaiser's pirates : hunting Germany's raiding cruisers in World War I /Nick Hewitt. "The Kaiser's Pirates is a dramatic and little-known story of World War I, when the actions of a few men shaped the fate of nations. By 1914 Germany had ships and sailors scattered across the globe, protecting its overseas colonies and 'showing the flag' of its new Imperial Navy. After war broke out on August 4 there was no hope that they could reach home. Instead, they were ordered to attack Britain's vital trade routes for as long as possible. Under the leadership of a few brilliant, audacious men, they unleashed a series of raids that threatened Britain's war effort and challenged the power and prestige of the Royal Navy. The next year saw a battle of wits which stretched across the globe, drawing in ships and men from six empires. By the end, the 'Kaiser's Pirates' were no more, and Britain once again ruled the waves. Including vivid descriptions of the battles of Coronel and the Falklands and the actions of the Emden, the Goeben and the Breslau, the Karsrèuhe and the Kèonigsberg, The Kaiser's Pirates tells a fascinating narrative that ranges across the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, and the Caribbean."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.459(43)

War Beneath the Waves : Uboat Flotilla in Flanders 1915-1918 /Tomas Termote "For four years the German U-boats of U-Flottille Flandern would become a serious threat to the omnipotence of the Royal Navy and its fleet. By the end of the war they had managed to sink a total of 2,554 Allied ships, totalling 2.5 million tons of shipping. The Royal Navy put everything it had at its disposal to defeat the U-boats. Mines, steel nets, patrol craft, Q-ships, aircraft, airships, convoys, espionage and specially equipped salvage units had to eliminate the activities of the U-boat. As a consequence, these countermeasures caused the loss of 80% of the U-boats which were stationed in the Flemish ports.Underwater archaeologist and naval historian Tomas Termote visited the wrecks of many U-boats and has unraveled many of their secrets. He also writes about life on board the U-boats, their importance in the war and the heavy losses on both sides. For the first time a detailed insight in this unique part of history is given with an account of the fate of every U-boat of the fleet.Illustrated with underwater colour photographs of the wrecks, drawings of the sites and artefacts which helped identify unidentified sites,including that of UB-88, which ended up after the war in US waters where she was paraded in every big port on the US East coast, and sailed right up north along the West coast where it ended its life after being sunk off San Diego."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.827.3

Bismarck : the epic chase : the sinking of the German menace /by James Crossley. "When the German Battleship Bismarck was commissioned in 1940 she was one of the fastest and most powerful ships afloat. To the Royal Navy and the security of Allied shipping in the Atlantic she posed an enormous threat - she must be destroyed. When she broke out into the Atlantic in 1941, some of Britain's most powerful ships were sent to pursue and sink her. The first encounter proved disastrous for the British Battleship HMS Hood, which was sunk at 0800 on 24 May. Bismarck had sustained several hits from HMS Prince of Wales but the Royal Navy were unsure of the extent of the damage and whether she would attempt to return to Germany for major repairs or sail for France to lick her wounds. Previous written accounts suggest that the whereabouts and course of Bismarck were unknown to the Allies until discovered by an RAF Catalina at 1030 on 26 May. This was followed an hour later by the arrival of a Fairey Swordfish flying off HMS Ark Royal. This aircraft hit the Bismarck with her torpedo and severely damaged her steering gear. It was now only a matter of time before the full firepower of the British capital ships would close in and destroy Germany's greatest ship. This new book revises previous theory of the events, in which earlier publications have failed to reveal the full extent of the capabilities of both British and German Radar or the significance of British ULTRA signal intercepts."--Provided by the publisher 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.542.9(42:43)"1941"

Admiralty despatches : the story of the war from the battlefront 1939-45 /G. H. Bennett. "From at least as early as the eighteenth century it became a tradition that, following operations involving the Royal Navy, the commanding admiral would report to the Admiralty in the form of an official despatch. Following the French wars of 1792-1815 the despatches were published and that set a precedent. After the Second World War the relevant despatches for 1939-45 were published (from 1947 onwards) as supplements to the London Gazette. The despatches reproduced here, introduced and annotated by Professor Bennett, cover events with a huge bearing on the outcome of the war, such as the convoys in the Mediterranean and to Russia, major amphibious operations and raids such as Dieppe, alongside some of the minor operations involving the Royal Navy and, of course, D-Day. These important documents are published here in an accessible form. We are fortunate that they were written in a way designed to be understood by the public at the time. What they reveal, not only about naval operations but about their authors, is fascinating.--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 354.71

More days, more dollars : the universal bucket chain: 1885-1920 /Richard Woodman. General history of British merchant shipping, covering its heyday as the greatest carrier of people, goods and materials and its involvement in the First World War. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 656.61(42)

Bosun's call "Describes the author's hilarious experiences during his time spent on the lower deck in the Royal Navy; starting as a Boy Seaman, he slowly makes his uncertain way towards his goal of acting sub Lieutenant. Covering the years between 1949 and 1956, we experience a country still on wartime rationing, low pay, strict discipline and a time of general drabness. Yet despite this, most young people were filled with optimism brought beautifully to life in this tale of eccentric and colourful characters serving on both the lower deck and in the wardroom."--Provided by the publisher. 1999 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.124:92Willis

Regulations ... of the rates of His Majesty's ships ... the pay, numbers, and ratings of all the officers and men in the fleet ... Great Britain. Orders in Council 1816 • RARE-FOLIO • 1 copy available. 355.51:094

The Gulf and inland waters Mahan, A. T.-(Alfred Thayer), 1898 • BOOK • 2 copies available. 355.49"1861/1865"(73)

Tars : the men who made Britain rule the waves /Tim Clayton. An account of life in the Royal Navy during the Seven Years War (1756-63) dramatised from first-hand archival sources, including logbooks and personal papers in the National Maritime Museum's manuscript collection. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1756/1763"

Confidential Admiralty monthly intelligence report : no. 74 ; 15th June, 1925. Single issue of regular intelligence report. 1925. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.535:359

Warship. editor: John Jordan. Annual publication focusing on the design, development and service history of the world's combat ships. 2007. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.82"2007"

Britannia to Beira and beyond : one man's humorous experiences of Royal Navy life in the 1960's. Critchley, Mike. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"196"(42)

The naval ascendency of Britain / by William Hillary. A plea for greater investment in the Royal Navy to maintain and extend its international dominance. 1838. • RARE-PAMPH • 1 copy available. 355.49"1838"(42)

The story of the semaphore / by H.P. Mead. Mead, H. P. 1938-1952. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 627.725.2

HMS Revenge : 1924-1928. 1928?] • PAMPH-OVER • 1 copy available. 623.82REVENGE

The blockade and the cruisers / Soley, James Russell. 1898. Soley, James Russell 1898 • BOOK • 2 copies available. 355.49"1861/1865"(73)

Salt-water thief / by E. O. Hauge ; translated by Malcolm Munthe. Biography of Odd Starheim, a Norwegian resistance fighter during the Second World War. The book details Starheim's early life and career as an officer and radio operator in the Norwegian Merchant Navy, then describes his extensive participation in the resistance against the Nazi occupation of Norway as a member of Norwegian Independent Company 1, a group of the British Special Operations Executive, who chiefly carried out commando raids. Translated from the original Norwegian by Major Malcolm Munthe. It has 8 pages of black and white plates. 1958. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92STARHEIM, ODD

Anglo-Saxons in the Mediterranean : commerce, politics and ideas (XVII-XX centuries) /edited by Carmel Vassallo & Michela D'Angelo. International Congress of Maritime History. 2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 38(42)"16/19"

England's maritime heritage from the air / Peter Waller. "England has a long and involved relationship with the sea. It has provided a final line of defence against invasion, the route over which the country's global trade has travelled, the source of a bountiful harvest of fish and seafood that has sustained the population, the essential links in the empire that saw Britain emerge as the world's first 'Great Power', and, more recently, it has fostered the leisure industry. For many, the sea was to provide their final view of their homeland as emigration took them to far-flung corners of the world, while for others, perhaps fleeing religious or political persecution, the sea offered them a route to safety. For almost a century the photographers from the Aerofilms company recorded Britain from the air. Alongside the photographs taken of the great castles and abbeys of the country, the views als recorded industrial and commercial activity - including the docks and ports that were an essential part in maintaining Britain's place in the world. In this book, Peter Waller has delved through the collection of Aerofilms photographs held by Historic England to explore the country's maritime heritage. Selecting 150 images, the author looks at how the docks and ports have evolved since the years immediately after World War I, how traditional patterns of trade have changed, how the Royal Navy has shrunk and how the leisure industry has come to dominate."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 77.047(26)

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